Editorial: State owes debt to GOP senators who voted for same-sex marriage

Sep. 26, 2012

Absentee ballots from the Sept. 13 primary are piled up after being counted at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections on Sept. 20. State Sen. Roy McDonald, who represents the 43rd District, was defeated by Kathy Marchione. McDonald, a Vietnam combat veteran, last year voted in favor of marriage equality. / AP Photo/Mike Groll

Written by

| A Journal News editorial

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has expressed support for the Republican senators who cast deciding votes for gay marriage a year ago. / AP FILE PHOTO

Sen. Steve Saland, a Republican who represents the 41st District, discussed his vote in support of same-sex marriage with the Poughkeepsie Journal Editorial Board. / Spencer Ainsley/Poughkeepsie Journal

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Profiles in courage are so rare in today’s rough and tumble politics, it bears special mention when officeholders vote against political self-interest, siding instead with noble principle. So it was last year when four Republican state senators put the good of the many ahead of their own prospects for re-election and voted to legalize same-sex marriage, still opposed by large numbers in their party.

The other shoes dropped quickly for Sens. Mark Grisanti of Buffalo, Roy McDonald of Saratoga and Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie, all of whom faced challengers in the Sept. 13 primary — a rare development in a body where incumbency usually is a talisman of invincibility. Grisanti easily defeated his opponent, but Saland only learned Monday that he won in a close vote. McDonald was defeated; James Alesi of Rochester did not seek re-election.

Debt of gratitude

Fair-minded New Yorkers owe a debt of gratitude to each of them, for standing up for our sons and daughters, friends and family, co-workers — other New Yorkers so long denied basic fairness, dignity and respect. It would have been much easier to default to anti-gay-marriage orthodoxy — usually the safe choice in low-turnout GOP primaries — and allow the unfair status quo to endure.

Saland, whose new 41st District now dips into Putnam County, was the critical 32nd vote for same-sex marriage in the landmark vote in June. He said at the time: “When I came to the conclusion that civil unions wouldn’t do it, and if you really believed in fairness and equality and doing the right thing … for me there was only one answer. It was purely a vote of conscience. I did what I thought was the right thing.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who backed all four senators, was philosophical before the outcome was known. “No matter what happens in the election,” Bloomberg told The New York Times, “they’re going to have the satisfaction of knowing for the rest of their life they stood up and voted their conscience, and they did it in a world where that’s harder to do today maybe than it’s been in a long time.”

He added: “I keep saying, there’s got to be something more important than doing what’s right for your political career. I think you’ve got to do what’s right for humanity, and for the country, and, in my case, for the city, and I think these four Republicans did.”